Ben Ames Williams
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Ben Ames Williams (March 7, 1889 – February 4, 1953) was an American novelist and writer of short stories; he wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. Among his novels are ''Come Spring'' (1940), ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1944) ''House Divided'' (1947), and '' The Unconquered'' (1953). He was published in many magazines, but the majority of his stories appeared in the pages of the ''
Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
''.


Early life

Williams was born on March 7, 1889 in
Macon, Mississippi Macon is a city in Noxubee County, Mississippi along the Noxubee River. The population was 2,768 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Noxubee County. History In 1817, Jackson's Military Road was built at the urging of Andrew Jackson to pr ...
to Daniel Webster Williams and Sarah Marshall Ames. He was the grand-nephew of Confederate General
James Longstreet James Longstreet (January 8, 1821January 2, 1904) was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse". He served under Lee as a corps ...
. Just after his birth, he and his parents moved to Jackson, Ohio. As his father was owner and editor of the ''Jackson Standard Journal'', he grew up around writing, printing, and editing. In high school he worked for the ''Journal'', doing grunt work in the beginning and eventually writing and editing. He attended Dartmouth College and upon graduation in 1910 was offered a job teaching English at a boys school in Connecticut. He telegraphed his father seeking career advice, but his handwriting was terrible and the telegraph company clerk mistook "teaching" for "traveling", and the father, not wanting his son to become a traveling businessman, advised him not to take the job. Richard Cary says it later saved Williams from "a purgatory of grading endless, immature English 'themes'" and propelled him "toward a career as one of the most popular storytellers of his time". After graduation, he took a job reporting for the ''
Boston American The ''Boston American'' was a daily tabloid newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts from March 21, 1904 until September 30, 1961. The newspaper was part of William Randolph Hearst's chain, and thus was also known as ''Hearst's Boston Americ ...
''. Williams worked hard reporting for the local newspaper, but only did this for income; his heart lay with magazine fiction. Each night he worked on his fiction writing with the aspiration that one day, his stories would support himself, his wife, Florence Talpey, and their children, Roger, Ben, and Penelope.


Career

Williams first publications were ''The Wings of 'Lias'' in ''
Smith's Magazine ''Smith's Magazine'' was a Street & Smith magazine published monthly from April 1905 to February 1922.
'' in July 1915,Ben Ames Williams
''The Editor'' (July 15, 1917)
and on August 23, 1915 in ''
The Popular Magazine ''The Popular Magazine'' was an early American literary magazine that ran for 612 issues from November 1903 to October 1931. It featured short fiction, novellas, serialized larger works, and even entire short novels. The magazine's subject matter ...
'' with his short story, ''Deep Stuff''. After this, his popularity slowly grew. On April 14, 1917, the ''Saturday Evening Post'' picked up one of Williams' stories, titled ''The Mate of the Susie Oakes''. Richard Cary has highlighted the privilege of being printed in the pages of this mammoth magazine: "''The Saturday Evening Post'' represented an Olympus of a sort to him and his contemporaries. To be gathered into its pantheon of authors, to be accepted three or five or eight (and eventually twenty-one) times in a year constituted "a seal of approval and a personal vindication", and it certainly helped his career. One of his stories in 1926 included a notorious mathematical puzzle known as the monkey and the coconuts, which provoked an outpouring of 2,000 letters to the Post asking for a solution to the problem. He published 135 short stories, 35 serials, and seven articles for the ''Post'' during a period of 24 years. After the ''Post'' took him, other magazines began eagerly seeking Williams to submit his fiction to their magazines. Although there generally is not a common theme running through Williams' work, the pieces he contributed to the ''Saturday Evening Post'' tended to be focused on the business environment. Such stories of his as "His Public" complemented the business slant of the Post. Williams became "identified in later years with rural Maine" because so many of his stories were set there. He owned a summer home there, and grew fond of the land because he spent so much of his free time in Maine with friend A.L. McCorrison. Williams is perhaps most famous for creating the fictional town of Fraternity, located in rural Maine. 125 of his short stories were set in Fraternity, and they were most popular in the ''Post'', though
George Horace Lorimer George Horace Lorimer (October 6, 1867 – October 22, 1937) was an American journalist, editor, author and publisher who worked as the editor of ''The Saturday Evening Post'' from 1899 to 1936. During his time as editor, circulation rose from s ...
was always upset that there was too much character and not enough plot in these stories


Film adaptations

A number of his novels were turned into films, the more popular of these being ''
Leave Her to Heaven ''Leave Her to Heaven'' is a 1945 American psychological thriller film noir melodrama directed by John M. Stahl and starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, and Vincent Price. It follows a socialite who marries a prominent novelist, wh ...
'' (1945), ''
The Strange Woman ''The Strange Woman'' is a 1946 American melodrama film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and written by Ulmer and Hunt Stromberg, starring Hedy Lamarr, George Sanders and Louis Hayward. Originally released by United Artists, the film is now in the pub ...
'' (1946), and ''All the Brothers Were Valiant''; the latter was made twice, first in 1923 and again in 1953. His writing traversed a wide range of genres and evinced considerable expertise in a number of divergent fields. Other films based on the writing of Williams are ''
After His Own Heart ''After His Own Heart'' is a 1919 American silent comedy-drama film based on a 1919 short story of the same name by Ben Ames Williams. It was adapted for the screen by Albert Shelby Le Vino and directed by Harry L. Franklin. The film stars Hale H ...
'' (1919), '' Jubilo, Jr'' (1927), ''
Too Busy to Work Too Busy to Work may refer to: * ''Too Busy to Work'' (1932 film), an American drama film * ''Too Busy to Work'' (1939 film), an American comedy film {{disambiguation ...
'' (1932), '' Small Town Girl'' (1936), ''
Adventure's End ''Adventure's End'' is a 1937 American adventure film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring John Wayne and Diana Gibson. It was distributed by Universal Pictures.Zmijewsky, Steve; Ricci, Mark (1970). "The Complete Films of John Wayne". Citadel ...
'' (1937) and ''
Johnny Trouble ''Johnny Trouble'' is a 1957 American drama film directed by John H. Auer and written by Charles O'Neil and David Lord. The film stars Ethel Barrymore in her final film, Cecil Kellaway, Stuart Whitman, Carolyn Jones, Jesse White and Rand Harp ...
'' (1957).


Later years

The mid-1920s were the peak of Williams' short-story-writing career. In 1926, he published an impressive 21 stories in the ''Saturday Evening Post'' in addition to the stories he published in other magazines that same year. There were two main factors contributing to his slow fade from the spotlight: the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and the trend toward shorter fiction, a tough mold for the often-verbose Williams. This transition from magazine culture enabled him to focus on novel-writing. Williams also edited and annotated the diary of
Mary Boykin Chesnut Mary Boykin Chesnut (née Miller) (March 31, 1823 – November 22, 1886) was an American author noted for a book published as her Civil War diary, a "vivid picture of a society in the throes of its life-and-death struggle."Woodward, C. Vann. "In ...
(1823-1886), a Confederate wife; although others had published shorter editions, his version, titled ''A Diary from Dixie'', was the most comprehensive edition for several decades. Recent commentators have noted that "his lack of scholarly acumen was alternately hailed by reviewers and lamented by academic critics, but Williams's work on the edition signaled his unwavering immersion in Civil War history." Steven Stowe of Indiana University explained that "Ben Ames Williams, a writer of popular fiction, brought out an edition of Chesnut’s diary in 1949, now known as one of the most extravagant escapades of editorial overreaching." Ben Ames Williams died on February 4, 1953 in Brookline, Massachusetts after suffering a heart attack while participating in a curling contest at the Brookline Country Club. He was survived by his wife, three children, and his mother. His wife survived to 1970, and self-published a biography of her husband.Florence T. Williams, "All About Da," iv + 293 pp. (priv. publ., 1963)


Selected list of novels published

* ''All the Brothers Were Valiant'' (1919) * ''The Sea Bride'' (1920) * ''The Great Accident'' (1920) * ''Evered'' (1921) * ''Black Pawl'' (1922) * ''Money Musk '' (1922)( Republished as ''Lady in Peril'') * ''Sangsue'' (1923) * ''Audacity'' (1924) * ''The Whaler'' (1924) * ''The Rational Hand'' (1925) * ''The Silver Forest'' (1926) * ''Immortal Longings'' (1927) * ''Splendor'' (1928) * ''The Dreadful Night'' (1928) * ''Death on Scurvy Street'' (1929) * ''Touchstone'' (1930) * ''Great Oaks'' (1931) * ''An End to Mirth'' (1931) * ''Pirate's Purchase'' (1931) * ''Honeyflow'' (1932) * ''Pascal's Mill'' (1933) * ''Mischief'' (1933) * ''Small Town Girl'' (1935) * ''Crucible'' (1937) * ''Thread of Scarlet'' (1939) * ''The Happy End'' (1939) * ''Come Spring'' (1940) * ''The Strange Woman'' (1941) * ''Deep Waters'' (1942) * ''Time Of Peace'' (1942) * ''Amateurs At War'' Edited (1943) * ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1944) * ''It's a Free Country'' (1945) * ''House Divided'' (1947) * ''Owen Glen'' (1950) * '' The Unconquered'' (1953) ''The Strange Woman'' and ''Leave Her to Heaven'' were published as
Armed Services Editions Armed Services Editions (ASEs) were small paperback books of fiction and nonfiction that were distributed in the American military during World War II. From 1943 to 1947, some 122 million copies of more than 1,300 ASE titles were distributed to s ...
for distribution to servicemen and women serving overseas during World War II.


References


Further reading

* Williams, Florence Talpey. 'About Ben Ames Williams", Colby Library Quarterly 6 (Sep 1963): 302-327. * Yokelson, Joseph B. "Ben Ames Williams: Pastoral Moralist", Colby Library Quarterly 6 (Sep 1963): 278-292.


External links


The Papers of Ben Ames Williams
at Dartmouth College Library * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Ben Ames 1889 births 1953 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists People from Macon, Mississippi People from Jackson, Ohio Novelists from Ohio Place of death missing 20th-century American male writers